The second album from the duo of the excellently named vocalist/guitarist ‘Wolven Deadsoul’ and drummer E.H, was a completely blind grab for me. But when it threw around words like ‘Swedish death metal’, ‘Asphyx’, ‘Grave’, ‘Benediction’, and such, I had to check it out despite the aggressively purple cover..
I was greeted with some excellent death metal that culls heavily from the classic Swedish scene, but certainly, the names dropped above can all be heard in the no-nonsense 9 song, 32-minute assault.
While not reinventing the death metal wheel, the array of influences comes together for a killer album that delivers ample moments of blasting savagery and a few solid, girthy grooves as well. It’s rendered with a production that also melds some of the bands above, with a burly, sort of semi-HM2 buzz, but with some blistering Dutch Asphyx-ian, face peeling sharpness as well.
From the opener “Within the Darkness”, through blistering “Condemnation Through Fear”, the moody “Silencing the Masses” (which reminded me of early Cemetery), groovy “Freedom of Death” to closer “False Reconciliation”, Spiralling to Lunacy just hits all the right notes and scratches all the right death metal itches, balancing their influences and their own character perfectly.
